The Success of Star Wars IV-VI: Backstory

Where were you when you first watched Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope? Were you in the theater? At a friend’s house? In your living room? It’s not the sort of thing you’re likely to forget.

For me, I was with my family at my Uncle David’s house back in the early ‘90’s. We were squished onto his couch and glued to his TV, which is how I’d watch all three films several times growing up. While I can’t remember my exact impressions as an elementary school student, I can say that the films’ cumulative effect helped weave the fabric of my personality, vocabulary, and memories. They’re just so darn quotable!

But what’s the story behind the story? How did George Lucas come up with the idea that would become the world’s most recognizable franchise? And is Star Wars technically science fiction? I’m going to answer all these and more in this post, so let’s get this backstory crackin’!

THE INSPIRATION

Inspired by Joseph Campbell

While the Star Wars movies had many aspects that were brand spanking new, I think their lasting popularity is due to what made them familiar rather than what made them novel. For example, one of the greatest influences on the films—especially A New Hope—was the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll remember the series I did based on his “hero’s journey” cycle. (I mean, the series was forever long. You couldn’t forget it if you tried.)

Lucas had read the book in college but had forgotten about it until he was editing his script for A New Hope. Campbell’s description of the familiar, 12-stage quest helped focus Lucas’s scattered ideas into one tidy story. Because the cycle is based on countless stories from mythology, history, and modern literature, plots based on it will resonate with us. That’s one reason why, despite its fantastic settings and alien characters, A New Hope is still so relatable.

Inspired by Flash Gordon

Other inspirations for the Star Wars stories were the TV shows, comic books, movies, and literature that Lucas had enjoyed while growing up. The Flash Gordon TV serial made such a big impact on Lucas as a child that he actually tried to buy the rights to the show before he created Star Wars. He’s thankful now (and so are we!) that he was denied the rights, because it would have turned his career in a whole different direction. Instead, he wrote the Star Wars stories with the characters, adventures, and style of Flash Gordon in mind, in a sense making a new version of his favorite old show.

Other Inspirations

In college, Lucas became smitten with Japanese films, especially the works of director Akira Kurosawa. The plot of A New Hope has similarities to Kurosawa’s films, especially The Hidden Fortress, and you can see the influence of the samurai when you look at the Jedi’s ancient weapon and technique, and their desire to keep peace. Even the Force seems to be a blend of Eastern mysticism and other new age philosophies. I think the films gained depth from borrowing certain aspects of this ancient culture.

Lucas also mentioned that he was influenced by Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, especially in the portrayal of good versus evil. He saw Obi-Wan Kenobi as a parallel to Gandalf and Darth Vader as a version of the Witch King of Angmar. Great choice in inspiration, Lucas. I approve.

THE CREATION

Revising the Idea

So the inspiration for the stories took a long time and many sources, but how did Lucas create the trilogy itself? Well, first of all, he didn’t start out to make a trilogy; he wanted to make a children’s TV serial like Flash Gordon. He’d written quite a bit of plot, and knew he’d need to break it in pieces in order to show it all. But when he found that the studios wouldn’t support him in such a big undertaking, he was forced to shorten it to the length of one movie. He was expecting it to be a flop, so he used all the good plot points to make the film as interesting as possible: he killed Obi-Wan and blew up the Death Star. Then he found that people wanted sequels. Oops.

Lucas’s Directing Style

It was back to the drawing board for Lucas, and I mean that quite literally. Lucas is a visual thinker, so in order to write and direct the films (even though he didn’t technically write the screenplays or direct Episode V or VI), he would need to see the ideas drawn out on a storyboard. This helped him plan the content and even the angle of many shots. Sound a bit controlling? Perhaps. By all accounts, Lucas is a quiet, intense, visionary perfectionist.

He readily admits that his favorite part of the movie-making process isn’t writing, directing, or filming—it’s the editing. That, he believes, is where the real magic happens. You can spin decent footage into cinematic gold if you know what you’re doing in the editing room. And apparently Lucas has that Rumpelstiltskin touch, because his films are 24-carat. (That sounds like a really obscure pickup line.)

Making His Dreams Reality

So Lucas took his sprawling story, condensed it into one movie, and then re-expanded it into a trilogy. He sat through casting interviews, compiled a talented team both on and off the screen, and then got to work. I’ll touch on this more next week, but Lucas brought his unique vision to life through a combination of on-location filming and cutting-edge special effects. Looking at the original trilogy today, it’s hard to believe the sparkly explosions, fuzzy puppets, and stop-animation creatures were ever cutting edge, but Lucas was setting a new standard for film. Although the movies turned out to be only a fraction of what his mind’s eye had envisioned, they were still the best of their kind.

But What’s the Genre?

And what kind is that? The movies themselves, he clarifies, aren’t considered mere science fiction; they’re a branch of science fiction known as the “space opera.” Apparently that has nothing to do with large women wearing Viking helmets; it’s more like a “soap opera,” a story with plenty of relational drama and plot twists. A space opera “emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking,” all of which abound in Star Wars (3).

For Lucas, the stories aren’t about space as much as they’re about the dynamic between father and son. That, I think, is part of the reason the movies appeal to so many as opposed to, say, Star Trek. In Star Trek, the plots often hinge on unfamiliar beings and strange places; in Star Wars, the creatures and places are almost incidental to the real issues of family drama. (Although I admit it’s a lot cooler to learn who your biological father is when you’re dangling over the edge of a space station chasm in Cloud City.) This isn’t to say Star Wars is better than Star Trek. It’s really comparing apples to oranges, so eat whatever you have a taste for.

To Be Continued

Now that you’re an expert in the inspiration and creation of the original Star Wars trilogy, you’re equipped to critique next week’s post about what worked and what didn’t work in these classic films. The post will be chock-full of my own opinions, but I’d love to hear your opinions, too, even if they’re contrary to mine! For now, let me leave you with a question:

Today’s Question: When did you first see the original Star Wars trilogy? Do you remember your first impressions?

Check out the next post here!

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogues
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_opera